Bowen, G. M. and Arsenault, N. (2008). It's All About Choice: Encouraging inquiry through investigating animal environmental preferences. The Science Teacher, 75(2), 34-7.
Summary:
G. Michael Bowen and Nicole Arsenault address the importance of designing activities that facilitate learning about science concepts. These activities should be designed so they appear to the students to have unknown outcomes. The inquiry activity the authors discuss involve investigating animals preferences, and their organism of choice was a cricket. The first part of the activity was to explore the animal behavior and its environmental preferences. Doing this allows students to engage in self-directed, open inquiry investigations, and the preferences observed usually have ecological explanations. This allows the teacher to introduce binary choice investigations, explaining that animals have a choice of one of two options that are more or less opposites. After introducing this idea, students are asked to develop investigations that address binary choice to study features that might dictate an animal’s preferred habitat. The authors also note it is important to use animals that are easily studied (crickets, mealworms, etc) and explain the careful and ethical treatment of animals when used in scientific research. Student investigations will include qualitative and quantitative data collection, and this is a good time to (re)address the importance of isolating one variable at a time. To challenge students, allow them to build on the binary choice design by building models that represent more than two choices (i.e. wet/dry, dark/light, multiple temperatures, two crickets vs. one, etc). Have students write rationales for their design based on their knowledge of the animal’s habitat. To conclude the activity, students will produce an individual report on their investigation describing what the animal did. In the report students should consider similarities of preferred environments to natural habitats and propose explanations for why these preferences are displayed in nature. Student explanations will lead to discussion of predation, food foraging, mating, and possibly natural selection and selective pressures. Designing investigations and being able to explain these preferences will enhance student understanding of scientific design and the limitations of quantitative analysis for describing animal behavior. Lastly, the authors note that having students interact with live animals generates a greater interest and enthusiasm in the material, and it is something that not many students get the opportunity to experience.
Reaction:
The more I read about student designed experiments/investigations, the more comfortable I am with being able to incorporate it into my classroom. I have come across many great ideas on how to include inquiry in the classroom and make the material meaning to students, and this article provided another great resource. Aside from outlining the inquiry-base activity, the authors suggest follow-up and reflective questions to assess student learning and progress throughout the activity. Even if students work in groups to design and investigate, I agree that it is essential to have them each write individual investigation reports on the behaviors observed and how it relates to the natural world. Furthermore, I like that the authors suggested how to make the activity more challenging by designing models that investigate more than two habitat choices for the animals being studied, which is definitely useful in a class of students with a range of abilities. All levels of students can be reached with this activity, and by using live animals the level of interest and enthusiasm in the investigation will increase. Personally, I never had the opportunity to interact with live animals in my high school science classes, but if I did I know it would have been very exciting. Observing how animals behave in a closed environment and then relating this behavior to the natural world is beneficial for students, as they may find it easier to then relate other science concepts in the lab to the world around them.
It's All About Choice
Summary:
G. Michael Bowen and Nicole Arsenault address the importance of designing activities that facilitate learning about science concepts. These activities should be designed so they appear to the students to have unknown outcomes. The inquiry activity the authors discuss involve investigating animals preferences, and their organism of choice was a cricket. The first part of the activity was to explore the animal behavior and its environmental preferences. Doing this allows students to engage in self-directed, open inquiry investigations, and the preferences observed usually have ecological explanations. This allows the teacher to introduce binary choice investigations, explaining that animals have a choice of one of two options that are more or less opposites. After introducing this idea, students are asked to develop investigations that address binary choice to study features that might dictate an animal’s preferred habitat. The authors also note it is important to use animals that are easily studied (crickets, mealworms, etc) and explain the careful and ethical treatment of animals when used in scientific research. Student investigations will include qualitative and quantitative data collection, and this is a good time to (re)address the importance of isolating one variable at a time. To challenge students, allow them to build on the binary choice design by building models that represent more than two choices (i.e. wet/dry, dark/light, multiple temperatures, two crickets vs. one, etc). Have students write rationales for their design based on their knowledge of the animal’s habitat. To conclude the activity, students will produce an individual report on their investigation describing what the animal did. In the report students should consider similarities of preferred environments to natural habitats and propose explanations for why these preferences are displayed in nature. Student explanations will lead to discussion of predation, food foraging, mating, and possibly natural selection and selective pressures. Designing investigations and being able to explain these preferences will enhance student understanding of scientific design and the limitations of quantitative analysis for describing animal behavior. Lastly, the authors note that having students interact with live animals generates a greater interest and enthusiasm in the material, and it is something that not many students get the opportunity to experience.
Reaction:
The more I read about student designed experiments/investigations, the more comfortable I am with being able to incorporate it into my classroom. I have come across many great ideas on how to include inquiry in the classroom and make the material meaning to students, and this article provided another great resource. Aside from outlining the inquiry-base activity, the authors suggest follow-up and reflective questions to assess student learning and progress throughout the activity. Even if students work in groups to design and investigate, I agree that it is essential to have them each write individual investigation reports on the behaviors observed and how it relates to the natural world. Furthermore, I like that the authors suggested how to make the activity more challenging by designing models that investigate more than two habitat choices for the animals being studied, which is definitely useful in a class of students with a range of abilities. All levels of students can be reached with this activity, and by using live animals the level of interest and enthusiasm in the investigation will increase. Personally, I never had the opportunity to interact with live animals in my high school science classes, but if I did I know it would have been very exciting. Observing how animals behave in a closed environment and then relating this behavior to the natural world is beneficial for students, as they may find it easier to then relate other science concepts in the lab to the world around them.
Lauren K.